ALLEGED THEFT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 230, 9 July 1943, Page 5

ALLEGED THEFT.

FORMER PAY SERGEANT CHARGED. (P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 8. Fivfe charges of stealing sums totalling £875 2s 6d from the Army Department while lie was a servant of the department were preferred against Raymond Alexander John Ryan, a soldier, aged 41, before Justices of the Peace to-day. Five charges of forging New Zealajid military forces payment warrants, with intent that they be acted on as genuine, were also brought. The offences were alleged to have occurred between November 80 and April 29 last. Accused was formerly a sergeant in the pay office, where he was salaries clerk. v Arthur Gordon Mallett, a Government Audit Inspector, who had been attached to the audit branch of the Northern Military District Pay Office, said it was reported to him that 21 warrants were missing from a warrant pad. Two of the missing series were found on May 10 among returned paid warrants, and each was made out for £lO 10s. A check revealed the warrants to be fictitious. The handwriting appeared to be similar to that of accused. A further search, witness said, revealed that 93 warrant forms were missing. There were still seven outstanding warrants. A complete search of the documents failed to reveal any trace of the soldiers or dependants whose names were set out in the SG warrants which were produced in Court.